Licensing

What is the one-license-one-store rule ?

This means that you are permitted to use one instance (a single installation) of the X-Cart software on one web server and one website only; in the event You intend to use the Software or any part thereof on more than one website, the license for each such multiple use must be obtained.

Examples explaining the one-license-one-store rule:

If your store is accessible from multiple domains but the content is the same for each link, this is OK and does not require multiple licenses.

If your store is accessible from multiple domains but each domain shows a different storefront skin style, this is OK and does not require multiple licenses.

If your multiple stores are located at sub-domains or in sub-directories of the same domain, the license for each store is required.

If your store is accessible from multiple domains and your store is customized to show/hide/alter certain part of content based on the domain, the license for each domain is required. In this situation the stores appear to have separate content thereby making them separate stores in the eyes of the license agreement. The content needs to be the same for each domain in order to qualify as a single store.

What is License URL?

License URL is a web address where the license obtained by you permits you to install and run the X-Cart software.

What is Installation error report?

The report indicates that X-Cart installation may not be completed because the web-server is not configured to run X-Cart software. In most cases, you should contact the hosting support to request to change the server settings.

The report has two sections:
REPORT - contains information on the errors that may or may not hinder in the installation procedure,
PHP INFO - information on the PHP configuration.

You should pay attention to the first paragraph. Note what errors are reported there, critical (CRITICAL ERRORS) or noncritical (NONCRITICAL ERRORS:).

An example of the installation error report:

REPORT:
----------------------------------------------------------
X-Cart version: Version 4.1.10
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Report time: Sun, 29 Jun 2008 13:56:23 -0400
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HTTP_REFERER: https://[store_URL]/[xcart_web_dir]/install.php
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CRITICAL ERRORS:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- MySQL database support is disabled. MySQL PHP extension must be enabled for correct operation of X-Cart application. [CHECK RESULT: Disabled]
There are CRITICAL ERRORS: MySQL application is not installed on the web-server
For now it is not possible to complete the installation until the problem is rectified.
You should contact the hosting support to request help with MySQL setup.
NONCRITICAL ERRORS do not stop the installation and you can complete it.
However, it is recommended to fix the errors too in order to avoid any possible problems in your future store.
Feel free to contact our support team for an advise.

How to change x-cart web-directory after installation is done?

1. Rename the current x-cart directory. Or if you want your cart to be shown in the root, i.e. www.example.com/home.php, you should move the x-cart files to the root folder on the server.

Note: Make sure you make backup copies of the existing files in the root folder if their names coincide with the names of the files being moved from the /xcart directory (for example, index.html), because they will be replaced when you move the files.

2. Update /config.php file (it is located in the root x-cart folder). You should alter this variable

$xcart_web_dir ="/[dir]";

where [dir] is the current x-cart folder.
If you just changed the name of the folder, you should insert the new name in [dir].

If you moved the files to the root, change the string thus

$xcart_web_dir ="";

Note: For versions 4.0.x and lower. If the x-cart images are stored in the file system, you should move them to the database before changing the directory.
Images storage location is defined in the admin back end, "Images Location" page.

How to protect my admin area with web authentication system?

Basically, to provide HTTP basic authentication for admin area via the server configuration, you need to set up .htaccess file in the X-Cart's admin/ directory.

For example, if you want to use it with "webmaster" as a login and "webpassword" as a password key, then the protection can be configured as shown below:

How do I set up secure checkout and registration in my X-Cart store?

How do I move my images to the file system?

X-Cart 4.0or above

First, you should export images to /files directory of X-Cart. X-Cart requires three images' folders: for icons, for thumbnails and for detailed images. You should create individual directories inside /files for each type of images and indicate corresponding paths on the 'Images location' page in the admin zone. During import of images to file system, X-Cart will overwrite images files names to appropriate ones.
For ex., "home/public_html/xcart/files/thumbnails" will be a path to thumbnails images.

Thus, to import images to the file system you should follow the following steps:

What is Auth code and where can I find it?

X-Cart 4.4or above

For security reasons, we have added Auth code, an additional authentication variable, which the installation script now has to handle. When the script detects that an X-Cart is already installed on the host, it does not allow to proceed with the installation until you enter a valid Auth code.

The logo shown on invoices can be changed by altering the following IMG tag located in the '/skin/common_files/mail/html/order_invoice.tpl' template:

IMG src="{$ImagesDir}/companyname_small.gif" border="0"

Note: Make sure to upload the required logo image to the '/skin/common_files/images' directory.

How to replace logo shown on invoices?

X-Cart 4.4or above

You should replace the logo image in the file '/skin/common_files/images/companyname_small.gif'.

Alternatively, you can edit the path to the X-Cart Invoice logo file in the template '/skin/common_files/mail/html/order_invoice.tpl'.

To do this, find this code:

<img src="{$ImagesDir}/companyname_small.gif" border="0">

and replace it with this:

<img src="{$ImagesDir}/new_companyname_small.gif" border="0">

where new_companyname_small.gif is the name of the new logo file.

You should have the new logo file uploaded to the '/skin/common_files/images' directory prior to editing the code. Once you have done that, you can edit the image tag the way you need (change file name, adjust image width, image height, etc).

Note: In 4.3.x and older versions, the corresponding logo image file and template file are '/skin1/images/companyname_small.gif' and '/skin1/mail/html/order_invoice.tpl', and the new logo file should be uploaded to the '/skin1/images' directory.

X-Cart 4.5or above

Note: For Ideal Comfort skin, the corresponding logo image file and template file are '/skin/ideal_comfort/images/custom/small_logo.gif' and '/skin/ideal_comfort/mail/html/order_invoice.tpl', and the new logo file should be uploaded to the '/skin/ideal_comfort/images/custom' directory. The line of code that should be adjusted in the template files is:

<img src="{$AltImagesDir}/custom/small_logo.gif" alt=""/>

X-Cart 4.6or above

Note: For Ideal Responsive skin, the corresponding logo image file and template file are '/skin/ideal_responsive/images/custom/small_logo.gif' and '/skin/ideal_responsive/mail/html/order_invoice.tpl', and the new logo file should be uploaded to the '/skin/ideal_responsive/images/custom' directory. The line of code that should be adjusted in the template files is:

Find the 'lbl_site_title' variable and edit its value in the memo. Alternatively you can just leave the field blank. In this case the company name will be the same as it is in the copyright notice.

Click the "Apply changes" button.

Note: The company name which appears in Copyright field, in the invoices, etc. does not correspond with the company name on the main page of your store and in the navigation bar above. Actually what you're setting via lbl_site_title' variable is your site's title, which can differ from your company name. You can have any text here. That is why setting of your real company name and this site title are carried out separately. Moreover it helps to make a multilingual company name.

Concerning the company name in the e-mail invoices, it is set via your Admin zone->Administration tab->General settings->Company options->Company name field.

How to change my site title appearing in the admin back-end?

Go to the "Languages" section.

Select a language in the "Edit language" select box.

Find the 'txt_site_title' language variable and edit its value in the memo.

Click the Update all button.

How to change my site title appearing in the customer front-end?

1. Generally the way to build any page title of any store page is specified in the "General settings -> SEO -> Page title format".

2. If any value is specified in the "Default site 'Title' tag" field in the "General settings -> SEO" section, this value is used as a page title for all the store pages. Note, the "Page title format" option is ignored in this case.

3. If any value is specified in the "Title tag" field for any of the Product, Category, Manufacturer and Static (embedded) pages, it is used as a page title for this specific page only, and the "Default site 'Title' tag" option is overridden.

How do you add a new configuration setting to X-Cart?

Just insert a record for your new configuration setting into the xcart_config table. You may find a lot of examples of SQL queries for this in the xcart-dir/sql/xcart_data.sql file. The new setting will be managed automatically by X-Cart on the General settings page.

My store says "This is a demo store powered by the X-Cart". How do I change it?

This is a standard welcome message which can be easily modified. If you open the '<xcart_dir>/skin/common_files/customer/main/welcome.tpl' template, you will see following statement there:

{$lng.txt_welcome}

When a customer visits your site, the {$lng.txt_welcome} statement is substituted with content of the 'txt_welcome' language variable, i.e. "This is a demo store...".

How to modify the 'txt_welcome' language variable:

Log in to the admin area

Go to the "Languages" section

Select a language in the "Edit language" select-box

Select a topic: Text ('Text' for txt_, 'Errors' for err_)

Enter 'txt_welcome' in the 'Apply Filter' field to find the variable and edit its value in the memo field

Click the Update all button

Also, if you start the "Webmaster mode", you will be able to edit language variables in an easier way: all you will need is to click the text and edit it.

How do I make the "Right-to-left text direction" check-box appearing on the "Edit languages" page?

Modify the following template file in your X-Cart store:

<xcart_dir>/skin/common_files/admin/main/languages.tpl

Just find and remove these lines of code:

{* To enable right-to-left text direction, uncomment the following code:
End of the commented code for the right-to-left text direction feature *}

How to alter default name titles "Mr.","Mrs.","Ms."?

In X-Cart v4.1.x and later this can be done using 'Administration'-> 'Titles' section in admin back-end.

In previous X-Cart versions, you have to edit '/config.php' file altering the following string:

$name_titles = array("Mr.","Mrs.","Ms.");

How to remove "Powered by X-Cart: shopping cart software" text?

Edit skin/common_files/main/prnotice.tpl template.

How can I obtain a USPS account?

Visit the site http://www.uspswebtools.com and register for USPS Web Tools (click on the ‘Sign up for USPS Web Toos’ link and fill in the registration form). You will receive an e-mail with Username and Password. Follow the instructions provided there. Get in touch with Internet Customer Care Center and ask to switch on your profile to allow you to access the Production Server.

Enter this username into the appropriate field in the USPS account details subsection of the ‘Shipping options’ page (accessible via ‘General settings’ in the admin area).

How to choose a payment processing service?

How to setup UK shipping and taxes

When you are installing X-Cart by running the installation wizard script, you should select option "United Kingdom" in dropdown "Configuration settings". After the installation is completed, UK-specific configuration will be imported into your store database.

To setup UK shipping and tax on a working X-Cart, you can apply an SQL patch from xcart_web_dir/sql folder - xcart_conf_UK.sql file. Download this file to your machine and install it via the X-Cart admin zone, "Patch/Upgrade" section, "Apply SQL patch" form.

The SQL configuration patches were added in v4.0.x. If you are using one of the earlier versions of this branch and do not find the patch, you can extract it from the fresh distributive of v4.0.x.

Note: The patch does not work on v3.x.x

If you need add specific UK shipping methods you can create them manually. Go to the admin backend, "Management" menu, 'Shipping methods' page and add new methods in the "Defined shipping methods" section.

How to set up drop shipping?

If you are planning to transfer customer orders and shipment details to external providers - manufacturers or a wholesalers - who would then ship the ordered products directly to the customers, make sure that the provider country matches the company location country; otherwise, shipping rates returned by the real-time shipping modules may be wrong. To implement providers based in other countries, please contact our technical support for customizing your X-Cart software.

Does X-Cart support recurring billing?

Beginning from version 4.4.0 X-Cart comes without X-Cart:Subscriptions module (due to limitations caused by PCI DSS standard). To allow recurring transactions you should use an appropriate service offered by the payment gateway or by 3rd-party providers.

How to setup X-Cart in PCI DSS compliant manner?

What is "background" payment gateway?

"Background" payment gateways provide so-called "Direct (or inline) Integration" solution (also known as "onsite" or "merchant hosted" solution) - this is the integration method of choice for Merchants who wish to keep their customers on their branded site and not interject a third party to handle the secure processing portion of a transaction. This method requires the Merchant to have their own SSL certificate.

What is "web-based" payment gateway?

"Web-based" payment gateways provide so-called "Hosted Payment Form" solution (also known as "offsite" or "gateway hosted" solution) - this is the integration method in which the payment gateway hosts a co-branded secure payment form on behalf of the Merchant. This method is generally only used by Merchants who are using a shopping cart that does not support the direct integration method. This method does not require the Merchant to have their own SSL certificate.

The content of these pages can be edited on the 'Static pages' page in your X-Cart admin area, for example:

http://www.example.com/xcart/admin/pages.php

For more detailed information about "Static pages" feature please refer to the Static Pages section.

How do I force my X-Cart to move zero total orders to "processed" instead of "queued"?

If the order total is zero, the order is processed off-line, and its status is set to "Queued". The store administrator is supposed to review and process such orders manually. This is how default X-Cart works.

However, if you want such orders to be processed automatically, you should modify the script "<xcart_dir>/payment/payment_offline.php", add the following code:

Note: You should complete the steps below BEFORE you start adding data in UTF-8 character encoding, otherwise you will have to re-enter or convert all the previously added data to UTF-8.

1) Convert all X-Cart tables to UTF-8. To do this you need to implement the following MySQL query:

ALTER TABLE %xcart-table% CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;

where %xcart-table% should be replaced with the name of the table from the X-Cart database. You need to implement this query for all of the X-Cart tables. The list of the tables can be found by execution of the following query:

SHOW TABLES;

2) Set your X-Cart database's collation to UTF-8. To do this you need to implement the following MySQL query:

ALTER DATABASE %xcart_database% COLLATE utf8_general_ci;

where %xcart_database% should be replaced with the name of your store database.

3) Modify include/func/func.db.php file - find the following lines:

}
return $sql_connection;
}

and replace with these ones:

} else {
mysql_query("SET NAMES 'utf8'");
}
return $sql_connection;
}

4) Finally, you can set UTF-8 as charset for your languages in the Edit languages section of the admin area (Administration -> Languages), and start adding data in UTF-8.

How do I convert my data in CSV file to support UTF-8 encoding?

Open your CSV file in Word. You will see a window let you choose the encoding. Specify the encoding which was used to create the file.

Save the file as text (.txt). You will see a window let you choose the encoding. Specify "Unicode (UTF-8)" as encoding for your file.

Is there a way for an image to be opened in a new window when looking at product details?

Go to "Settings -> Modules" on the Administration menu, click on the "Configure" link by the "Detailed Product Images" item, and adjust the option "Display detailed product images" to have detailed images opened in a pop-up window.

Is it possible to import negative quantities using built-in "update inventory" function?

A small custom modification is required. Find this line of code in "<xcart_dir>/provider/inv_update.php":

$columns[1] = abs(intval($columns[1]));

and change it to:

// $columns[1] = abs(intval($columns[1]));

I changed SKU for my product, but the old SKU still shows up. What is wrong?

Check if your product has "variants".

The base product SKU (the one specified on the "Product details" page) always differs from the SKU values for variants. Generally, the SKU values for variants represent the slightly modified SKU of the base product.

If you search for such a product, it will show the SKU of the default product variant, not the base product SKU. Make sure you change SKU values for variants, not the base product SKU.

What is the 'Order prefix' field on the configuration page of my payment method?

This field is intended for merchants who use the same merchant account for several online stores. An order prefix helps such merchants to distinguish payments from different stores. After defining an unique order prefix for each of the stores, the merchant can find out from which of the stores this or that payment originated based on the prefix automatically attached to the order ID.
If you do not need this feature, simply leave the field empty.

How to make PayPal to notify my X-cart store of events related to PayPal transactions?

Note: In old X-Cart versions some of the payment gateways do not support 3D Secure (or none of them do). Please refer to File:X-CART CHANGELOG.txt to find out in what X-Cart versions and for what payment gateways 3D Secure was implemented.

If you need assistance with configuring a payment gateway supprting 3D Secure on your X-Cart store or any other assistance/consultation from the X-Cart's exert support team, we will be glad to help you within the Techsupport service. Read more about the service at:

Upgrading

How to upgrade my store?

Common instructions on the upgrading process can be found at X-Cart:Upgrading page.

What is patch?

Diff file (or a patch) is a file 'describing' changes which needs to be applied to the file. In UNIX world diff files are a standard way to apply changes/fixes to a program source code. There is a special program called 'patch' which reads diff files and applies the changes to the source code. In everyday use diff files are frequently called 'patches' which may sometimes cause confusion.

How to install patches?

IMPORTANT! It is recommended to make a backup copy of all PHP scripts, templates and create a database dump before applying any patches. Please install patches ONLY if you absolutely understand what you are doing.

If you cannot apply the patch in these ways it means the file that needs to be patched has been modified or this file is from another version of X-Cart and cannot be patched by this patch. Ask technical support to help you.

I am getting "Could not patch" error when trying to apply a patch. What can I do?

If you still can not apply the patch, feel free to ask technical support to help you.

There are upgrade patches in my file area, what are they for and how can I use them?

Starting with v3.2.0 a special upgrade engine, allowing upgrading to a newer version, was implemented in X-Cart. Detailed instructions on how to perform upgrades come in the upgrade packages in UPGRADE.readme files.

Upgrade patches are a set of files which describe differences in code between old and new versions. All the changes are represented in standard diff format (UNIX unified diff format). Diff files contains structured data indicating what pieces of code are to be added/replaced/deleted: a sample of old code and a new code to insert instead. You will find more information about diff file at http://www.gnu.org/manual/diffutils-2.8/html_chapter/diff_toc.html

The main advantage of this approach is that diff patch technique allows upgrading even customized versions of X-Cart: X-Cart upgrade engine follows the list of files from the file file.lst and tries to patch them. Then database upgrade is fulfilled.
If the code is not changed the upgrade will be successfully completed.
However, since X-cart is highly customizable product most of X-cart users are certain to modify its code and templates to meet their needs. Here might come difficulties. If a piece of the code to be patched was customized (altered), the patch engine won't patch it and the upgrade script may fail. You will be notified about it by the system. So if you have ever changed X-Cart code you should be prepared to resolve the conflicts manually.

X-cart patch engine creates a log file that reflects a progress of the patching process - templates_c/upgrade/patch.log. The failed hunks are stored in reject files filename.ext.rej. Using this information you can figure out what parts of code haven't been patched in order to patch them manually afterwards.

For more information on the upgrade procedure and the instructions, refer to the manual included into the upgrade archive.

Why I'm getting checksum errors during upgrade?

Firstly, if you use WinZip to extract files from the upgrade/distribution kit, you need to change the default configuration in the following way: Click Options, Configuration, select the Miscellaneous tab and remove the tick from 'TAR file smart CR/LF conversion'. After that unpack the files from the archive once again and re-upload the files to your server.

Secondly, when you use FTP for uploading text files on the server it may alter your files (if it's in 'ASCII'/'Text' mode). It replaces the line-break symbols that are different for Unix and Windows systems whereas all the other text is left the same. These changes are not visible, but X-Cart checks files checksum and the values appear different from the expected ones. In order to solve the problem you should set your FTP client in the 'Binary' mode and re-upload the upgrade package files on the server.

Is it possible to upgrade from LC 2.2 to X-Cart 4.3 or 4.4? How do I do that?

You can upgrade LC 2.2 to X-Cart 4.4.3 using a special data transfer utility. Most data will be transferred, specifically:

Categories

Extra Fields

Memberships

Products

Featured products

Customer Profiles

Customer Orders

However, some data cannot be transferred during the transfer. In this case you can export the LC db data using phpMyAdmin, and then import that db data into X-Cart using the Import Tool.

2) The additional "templates" window will appear. It displays the list of templates composing a current page. You can call the template editor from this window by clicking a template.

3) Go to the page you want to change. To define the right template, look at the browser status line (at the page bottom). When the mouse is pointing at some text, this status line indicates the corresponding template and label.

4) To change a label, click on it. If the label is under a hyperlink, move the mouse over it and press "e" (Edit) on the keyboard. The label dialog will appear.

5) After you set a new label content you can

(a) preview the site with the changed label,

(b) save the text in the database, and

(c) copy the label name into the clipboard (IE only).

6) The webmaster mode is based on sessions: it applies only to the computer it has been set up on. I.e., when the 'Webmaster mode' is launched, it isn't displayed at the customer's end and doesn't affect the store performance. The changes will show up only after the admin clicks on 'save' button.

I have a question not answered here. Where do I ask for help?

Troubleshooting

I get a blank page when going to my X-Cart admin area. How do I solve it?

The problem may be caused by the fact that your X-Cart store is configured to use HTTPS for the admin pages. However, you have no SSL certificate installed on your web-site, thus your X-Cart store's pages can not be opened via HTTPS. If that is the case, you will get a blank page when going to your X-Cart admin area.

To check if SSL certificate is available for your web-site (X-Cart store) use for example this URL:

How do I change or reset my admin password? (I lost it)

If you happen to have another admin account, use this account to reset your lost password:

Log in to your store's admin area using a working admin account.

Open for editing the profile of the admin user whose password was lost.

Change the password as needed.

Alternatively, if you remember your admin username/admin email address, you can use X-Cart's reset password functionality:

In Admin area, go to the Password Recovery page:

On the Admin area home page (httр://<YOUR_XCART_DOMAIN>/admin/home.php), click the "Forgot password?" link.OR

Enter the following address in your browser's address bar: httр://<YOUR_XCART_DOMAIN>/admin/help.php?section=Password_Recovery.

Enter your admin username or email address and click Submit. An email message with a password reset link will be mailed to your admin email address.

Use the password reset link to rest your password.

If for some reason the above methods do not work for you (for example, you lost access to you admin email box), there's still hope.
You can create a temporary admin account and use it to regain access to your store's Admin area. As soon as you are logged in as admin, you will be able to either reset the password (and, if necessary, the email address) for the admin user whose password was lost or to get rid of that admin user account making the temporary admin account your permanent one.

Here's how you can create a temporary admin account:

X-Cart versions 4.5.4 and earlier:

Decide on the username and password you would like to use for your temporary admin account; for example, mytempadmin/mytempadmin.
Open your phpMyAdmin (supplied by your hosting company), click the "SQL" tab and run the following query using the username and password you thought up:

On X-Cart versions 4.4.0 and later, an attempt to log in using the above method may cause an error:

Email address is invalid! Please correct

This error occurs in stores using the 'Email as login' user authentication mode. If you got this error, replace the username in the above query statement with your valid email address and re-run the query. For example, if your email address is mytempadmin@example.com, use the following (the below example is for GOLD/GOLD PLUS):

After that you should be able to log in using the following credentials:

Email: mytempadmin@example.com

Password: mytempadmin

X-Cart versions 4.5.5 and later:

Decide on the login you would like to use for your temporary admin account. We recommend using your email address, as this works well both for stores with the 'Username as login' user authentication mode and stores with the 'Email as login' user authentication mode. Let's say you are going to use 'mytempadmin@example.com' as your admin login. You do not need to worry about creating a good password just now, it is not really important as you will have to change it before you can actually log in; for the sake of example, we'll use 'mytempadmin' as the password.

Open your phpMyAdmin (supplied by your hosting company), click the "SQL" tab and run the following query:

On the Admin area home page (httр://<YOUR_XCART_DOMAIN>/admin/home.php), click the "Forgot password?" link.OR

Enter the following address in your browser's address bar: httр://<YOUR_XCART_DOMAIN>/admin/help.php?section=Password_Recovery.

Request change of password for the temporary admin account you just created: On the Password Recovery page, enter the email address you used for your temporary admin account and click Submit. An email message with a password reset link is mailed to your admin email address.

Use the password reset link provided in the email message to reset your password. Before saving the new password, be sure to disable the admin profiles' authenticity check for the xcart_customers table by setting the value of the constant CHECK_CUSTOMERS_INTEGRITY in your store's main configuration file config.php to FALSE (Without disabling this check you will not be able to save the new password). After resetting the password, restore the value of CHECK_CUSTOMERS_INTEGRITY in config.php to TRUE.

Now you should be able to log in to your store's Admin area using your new password.

If you find it difficult to do it yourself - feel free to request our support team for assistance via your personal Helpdesk.

I have reset my admin password, but still can not log in. What is wrong?

If you are using X-Cart PLATINUM or PRO edition, then the problem is most likely caused by the fact that your store has been switched to and is currently running in GOLD operational mode. In other words, "Simple Mode" option is turned ON on the "Modules" page.

Please note that all accounts of the "administrator" type are disabled when "Simple Mode" option is turned ON.

Try to log in using any account of the "provider" type, or create a temporary account for the purpose of logging in, as suggested in this article (See instructions for X-Cart GOLD edition specifically).

Should you face any difficulties when getting access to your X-Cart admin area, do not hesitate to contact our support team via your personal Helpdesk. Our support engineers are always ready to help.

Should I re-generate the blowfish encryption key?

The respective message in your X-Cart Admin area only advises you to re-generate the key. This is not a mandatory, yet a highly recommended operation, just as changing the login and password that you use for accessing your X-Cart Admin area, FTP, SSH, etc., which you are recommended to change every once in a while. Here is how to re-generate your blowfish encryption key.

Is there any way to disable the blowfish encrpytion without knowing the merchant key?

Actually, there are two different encryption methods:

1) The Blowfish key based encryption method. This method is enabled by default; it cannot be disabled. You can view your current Blowfish Key in your X-Cart's main configuraton file config.php. You can also generate a new Blowfish key.

2) The Merchant key based encryption method. This is an additional (optional) feature. It can be enabled and disabled. The current Merchant key can be changed as well. Disabling the Merchant key based encryption method or changing the current Merchant key requires you to enter your current Merchant key.

Is there a way to restore a lost merchant key?

Merchant key is not stored in X-Cart anywhere. So, if you happened to lose your Merchant key, there is no way of restoring it. Without a valid Merchant key, you will not be able to decrypt and view sensitive order data. For this reason, it is essential that you keep your Merchant key in a safe place.

I am not receiving emails from my X-Cart store. How do I fix that?

Some spam prevention filters may block an email message if the domain part of the email address in the From header does not match the domain the message was sent from.

Generally, when a customer uses the "Contact us", "Send to a friend" and "Ask a question about this product" forms, the customer's email address (for example customer@gmail.com) is placed in the 'From' header of the message being sent. The same happens when a customer submits an order at your X-Cart based store and cart sends the order notification emails to the Orders department email address.

In the above cases, the domain part of the email address in the 'From' header does not match your website's domain name (for example, yourwebsitedomain.com), so the email message may be blocked by the spam filters.

Besides, if the mails are being sent with PHP mailer and not using any SMTP authentication then the mail is likely going to be sent through open mail relays. These mail relays are usually unmanaged and can develop a queue, and as a result the email stacks and delivery times increase.

To solve the problem, you can set up your X-Cart store to send emails via SMTP instead of PHP mailer: just configure and enable the corresponding SMTP options on the 'General settings/Email options' page.

When sending through the SMTP servers emails are delivered much quicker and more reliably. Please contact your hosting provider to know if emails can be sent with SMTP authentication on your server.

I use HTTPS in the admin area and keep getting the non-secure objects on the screen warning. Why is that?

X-Cart uses a free Google Maps API which can be accessed only over a non-secure (HTTP) connection. Thus, if you are viewing the order page in the admin back over a secure (HTTPS) connection, the browser may pop up a warning about non-secure objects on the screen.

I experience problems with external payment / shipping services working over https when using curl/libcurl as the https module. Is there a solution for that?

If you experience problems with external services (payment / shipping) working over https while using curl/libcurl as the https module, try adding the following line to top.inc.php:

define('USE_CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER', 1);

after

$xcart_dir = rtrim(realpath($xcart_dir), XC_DS);

I am getting "Fatal error: Out of memory..." error on my X-Cart pages. How do I resolve this issue?

Firstly, make sure the 'memory_limit' setting in your php.ini configuration file meets the X-Cart Server Requirements. The required value for X-Cart 4.4 is 32M or higher. Try to increase the memory limit until the error disappears.

Secondly, check if there is a memory limit defined in your Apache configuration. Try to increase the memory limit until the error disappears.

Feel free to contact your hosting provider to make the necessary changes, or contact our support team for assistance.

X-Cart 4.0or above

Payflow Pro is not working, getting "The certificate chain did not validate, no local certificate found" error at checkout. How do I resolve this issue?

You are probably running X-Cart 4.0.x (or older) which includes an outdated integration of PayFlow Pro. That integration use Payflow Pro client (pfpro) and the VeriSign/RSA root key bundled in legacy Payflow Pro SDKs to process a transaction.

On January 4, 2010, that Payflow Pro SDK expired permanently. Payflow Pro integrations that use outdated version of the SDK are no longer able to validate against the Payflow Pro server certificates. That is why you are getting "The certificate chain did not validate, no local certificate found" error.

For more information about the Payflow Pro integrations update please refer to:

Newer versions of X-Cart 4.1-4.3 support a newer PayFlow Pro integration that uses XMLPay API. The newer PayFlow Pro integration significantly differs from the older one. In other words, it's a completely new integration.

No more updates are available for the outdated 4.0.x (and older) branches, unfortunately.

Re-implement the PayFlow Pro integration on your current X-Cart 4.0.x (or older) store to support the XMLPay API. This can be done within the bounds of the Custom Development service.

You can also download the newer version of X-Cart (for example, 4.3.2 or 4.4.3), take the newer PayFlow Pro integration's files from the software distribution, and transfer/adopt the newer integration to your current 4.0.x (or older) version by yourself, or hire third-party developers to do the work.

Why do I get a security warning on my secure page?

Why do I get a "This page contains both secure and nonsecure items." (using IE7) or "Do you want to view only the webpage content that was delivered securely?" (using IE8) error?

Error from IE7:

Error from IE8:

To find the cause of the error, if using IE7 click "Yes" and if using IE8 click "No".

Once the page loads, view the source (Right Click, View Source).

Search for http: (include the : )

Any reference to http: in a HREF tag can be ignored, as that is just a link.

However, you will likely find the http: reference in an IMG SRC tag, or when trying to include a javascript file, or a hit tracker, etc. These http: references should be changed to https: to correct the error.

Here is a sample of http: being used in the IMG SRC tag incorrectly, for a secure page:

<img border="0" src="http://your_ssl_url.com/images/logo.gif">

That would need changed to a secure URL like:

<img border="0" src="https://your_ssl_url.com/images/logo.gif">

Alternatively, it can be changed to an absolute URL like:

<img border="0" src="images/logo.gif">

In any case, make sure your image is available via the secure (https://) URL.

Alternatively, you'd need to modify the URL used to request the images/scripts to change the protocol depending on what protocol the main page is being served with.

NOTES:

If you must fetch images or javascript files from a third party server, you'll only be able to solve this issue if that third party also provides HTTPS on their server, otherwise you cannot get rid of the message - it's there intentionally in IE to provide a legitimate security warning. You can't override it.

In some cases, changing the http: reference in a SCRIPT SRC tag to the https: one will not help to get rid of the security warning. It may happen when the included javascript file adds another http: references to your secure page. You can check this by examining your page using Firebug. In that case, you should contact the author of that javascript file, and ask them to modify their script to change the protocol of all the references being added by the script depending on what protocol the main page is being served with.

Feel free to contact our support team should you require assistance in resolving the security warning issue.

How do I solve errors like "Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 16777216 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 737280 bytes)..."?

You should contact your hosting provider or web-server administrator, and ask them to increase the "memory_limit" setting in php.ini. The required value is 32M or more, the recommended value is 64M or more.

If changing of your web-server's settings is not possible, or this does not help, please request our support team for assistance in your personal Helpdesk area.

Before testing the modification do not forget to remove all cookies in your browser.

How do I implement redirect from cart to intermediate page before checkout?

I want to add a code to redirect to a custom script after the customer adds a product to cart, instead of going to checkout. Actually this custom script creates an intermediate page with related products, and the customer can add one more from these products to cart and eventually go to checkout.

custom_script.php - your custom script creating an intermediate page which customers will be redirected to (page with related products).

var1=$var1, var2=$var2 - GET-parameters which need to be passed to your custom script.

How do I implement a custom script to add a product to cart? What variables are needed to be passed to cart.php through a submit form in my custom script?

I have a custom page, where I want the customer to add an additional related product to the cart, and then the code returns back to the cart.php script. How do I implement that? What variables of the newly-added product are needed to be passed through my submit form, to the cart.php script?